Understanding urged in South

“I’ll open a centre to gather complaints so I can look them up. I think that if an area no longer has any more bombing or violent attacks, I will propose that the state of emergency be lifted for that area,” he told The Nation. 

The region has experienced fighting and retaliatory attacks because Thai security officers’ search operations, specialised implementation of the law and issuance of arrest warrants for those engaged in ideological battles in the past decade has fostered a sense of injustice in people’s minds, he said. 

“The violence hasn’t been reduced because we haven’t tackled it at the ideology level. We didn’t let them see that there is justice. 

“I offer my apologies to people because the region has suffered violence and people feel they don’t get justice. So I’d like the chance to create justice,” he said. 

Anurut landed this job last October and since then has been visiting people and checking in on police operations. He wrote an apology to residents of the deep South via the police website.

The next step is to promote public participation in solving problems and expressing opinions and needs for public safety, criminal procedures and public services, he said. 

The deep South is not a war zone and police are there to serve the public, not to kill anyone for no reason, he said. The local identity and way of life should be respected, Anurut argued. “These days people should not use violence because if any officer used violence without reason, he wouldn’t be able to explain it to society, so he would be removed or reassigned to another task rather than any close to the public,” he said.